Posted on January 10, 2010 - by Tim L

How to look good naked…..coming clean

This week sees that start of a 3 weeks series aimed at getting us off to a good start in the year,…It is very relevant to this time of year,…How to look good naked,….
Gyms and diet classes are bulging but if we look just at the physical part of our lives we can run into problems.
This is not about plastic surgery,…
It is not about fashion,….
It is about our relationships with ourselves, with others and with God.
If I were to ask you what do you not like about yourself what would you say? Dare you say?
Most of us would admit it would be something about the way that we look.  The answers say far more about our society and the way we view ourselves that we might ever realise.

How to Look Good Naked is a television programme, first aired on British Channel 4 in 2006, in which fashion stylist Gok Wan encourages women who are insecure with their bodies to strip nude for the camera. The programme is unique among other similar makeover shows in that it never encourages participants to undergo cosmetic surgery or lose weight.
The format of the show is based on the self esteem building exercises that Wan guides the woman though.
(Wikipedia)

But this whole business of nakedness is not one that is new.  It has been around for 1000’s of years,

18God said, “It’s not good for the Man to be alone; I’ll make him a helper, a companion.” 19So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. 20The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn’t find a suitable companion.
21God put the Man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. 22God then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented her to the Man.
23The Man said,
“Finally! Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh!
Name her Woman for she was made from Man.”
24Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh.
25The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame.
Genesis 2; 18-25 (The Message)

Naked was once OK.
There once was no embarrassment about it, there was no shame,
There are many ideas what the nakedness was about at the end of Gen chapter 2 but most seems clear it is very important as we begin to read chapter 3.  But before we do that lets have a listen to Avril Lavaigne who wrote about the same kind of thing, but a lot more recently,..

Naked by Avril Lavaigne
I wake up in the mornin’
Put on my face
The one that’s gonna get me
Through another day
Doesn’t really matter
How I feel inside
This life is like a game sometimes

Then you came around me
The walls just dissapeared
Nothin’ to surround me
Keep me from my fears
I’m unprotected
See how I’ve opened up(oh)
You’ve made me trust

{chorus}
Cause I’ve never felt like this before
I’m naked around you
Does it show?
You see right through me
And I can’t hide
I’m naked around you
And it feels so right

Yeah yeah

I’m trying to remember
Why I was afraid
To be myself
And let the covers fall away
Guess I never had someone like you
(To help me)To help me fit in my skin

{chorus}

I’m naked (Oh oh yeah)
Does it show?
I’m naked (Ohhhhhohhhh)

Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Ohhhhhho

I’m naked around you
Does it show?
I’m so naked around you
And I can’t hide
Your gonna, your gonna see right through (you’re gonna see right through me and I can’t hide.) (gonna see right through…)
I’m naked around you
Oh yeah yeah
I’m so naked around you
And I can’t hide
You’re gonna see right through baby

Naked from Let go by Avril Lavaigne

You see right through me
And I can’t hide
I’m naked around you
And it feels so right

To be myself
And let the covers fall away
Guess I never had someone like you
(To help me)To help me fit in my skin

And then we read about what happens in Genesis 3.  Just suspend with me some of the questions you might have around if it really happened, was there a real Adam and Eve, where does evil come into this but just focus on clothing and nakedness.

1The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
2The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. 3It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”
4The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. 5God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
6When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it-she’d know everything!-she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
7Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”-saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.
8When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.
9God called to the Man: “Where are you?”
10He said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.”
Genesis 3 : 1-10 (The Message)

So what did you see?
It starts with nakedness and ends with fig leaves.
In Gen 2 we have a picture of Adam and Eve walking in the garden side by side with God.  By the end of Chapter 3 humanity hides from God and he has to call out to them. The relationship is not what it was, there is something between them.
Once there was no shame or embarrassment, now there is guilt, shame and embarrassment.  The behaviour of hiding before they meet God seems to suggest they feel guilt.

The clothes now being worn are used to hide, but who from? From each other? From God?
When asked ‘Where are you?’ the answer does not come directly, the real answer to the question is as hidden as their nakedness.

When do you hide?  When do attempt to cover up?
When are you not who you really are?  When are you guilty and avoid others?
When do you avoid God because of what he might say to you because of what you have done?
When do you avoid a someone in your family, a friend, a husband or a partner or a wife?

We literally cover ourselves up. We hide.
It is possible to look good naked again, it is possible to reveal who you really are, It is possible to come clean

I wake up in the mornin’
Put on my face
The one that’s gonna get me
Through another day
Doesn’t really matter
How I feel inside
This life is like a game sometimes

Stop making it a game - get real.

25And when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it’s not all asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive-only then will your heavenly Father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins.”
Mark 11 : 24 The Message

Coming clean - or Confession -
Large bin at the front. It maybe that you would like to come clean,..it might be with God, it might be with a fellow human being, so, now is time for you to come clean,….it will help you look good naked,…